As Gary Sims looks back on his time as President and CEO of Kirkland and District Hospital and Englehart hospital (Blanche River Health) he does so with pride.

It was recently announced that Sims will be leaving in November to take a position with Grey Bruce Health Services.

Sims sat down with the Northern News to reflect on his four years in Kirkland Lake.

“When I first came here we had a mandate to do certain things and I think the two boards have worked hard. My executive and Management team have worked hard to achieve all of those goals and I think we have come a long way to achieving that. For me it was four excellent years of working with great people.”

As for he and his team’s accomplishments over the four years, he says bringing the two hospital boards together was significant.

“Creating a platform for the future that is now sustainable financially; both organizations are in much better financial shape than they were when we first started. That is a key factor for us to succeed in the future and to expand our services.”

He added from a clinical point of view getting approval for the new CT scan at KDH is also important. Sims pointed out construction on the new unit will start in late October or early November and it is expected to be up and running in early January.”

He added the creation of the new Non Urgent Patient Transfer program that will begin early this fall that will service both Englehart and Kirkland and District Hospital will also be important for both facilities.

“That is quite the innovative approach. We’ve had four separate contracts with private sector companies over the last four years. Unfortunately the private sector companies struggled to make it work. Our innovative approach here was to purchase the two transfer ambulances or what we call ambulances for non-urgent transfers. Hopefully we will have it running in early October which would be fantastic.”

In the announcement of Sims’ departure The Joint Board of Directors that they are “investigating our options as we begin the process of securing a new Chief Executive Officer.”